Initial thoughts

[Khulkhuum]

I know different people will find different things fun for themselves, especially as they settle in too deep into the mechanics of a particular alpha, it's harder to shift their mindset.

 

On the other hand, i remember when i started ( i think in A15) and i was focused on so many things that were lost while gaining playing experience. A16 changed things altogether, but i feel that A17 brings back this nostalgia of early-game exploration and management.

 

ONE thing i would love to see is change in sleeper mechanics. I find big concerns in how they are constantly spawned and the count of sleepers is constantly being verified. I feel it would be way more IMMERSIVE and fun if all the sleepers were spawned once and never coming back to them ever (or respawned only after a long period of time). Current mechanics support mob spawning out of thin air. Like in Minecraft (there are mob spawning blocks), if you don't disable the spawn in any way, you got an xp farm, where you could just kite the Zs out of a POI and keep spawning sleepers for easy xp or get ambushed by suddenly spawning "horde".

 

EDIT: With the new zombie behaviors i don't think it's necessary to dump the numbers on players, i'm more into simply spawning the Zs and let the world spin on itself.

[Guest]

Haven't played a lot yet, but I think I agree with the folks who complain about the level gating. It used to be possible for smart/experienced players to focus on certain milestones, in order to get past the "gimped" feel of the early game a little faster. I don't mind it being harder to get a forge going on day 1 (something I regularly managed on A16), but simply making it take longer doesn't really feel like an interesting change.

 

I'm staring at these level requirements and thinking to myself: "it's going to be a while before I can actually play how I like". Boredom feels right around the corner, because it's like I'm held back from the parts of the game that I enjoy the most. I.e. not whacking at rocks and trees for minutes on end.

 

Dying now feels like double punishment too, at least early on. There's too much waiting before you can really do anything without greatly increasing your risk of simply dying another time and getting set back even further. Having to stick to resource harvesting with gimped stamina feels like a chore instead of a challenging gameplay mechanic.

 

There's plenty of excellent stuff in A17, but the grindy nature of the early game is getting on my nerves already and dampening the fun of discovery.

[Mike c]

i prefer the visuals and graphics of a16, the landscapes, biomes .....the zombies. This build the scapes are so bland the zombies so pasty and bland, Could use some color

[Kalen]

At the same time that happened my friend goes into a simple house and finds at least 20 zombies https://i.imgur.com/BqzuiJj.jpg when he dies.

 

Who knew? Arizona apparently had the highest population density in the world. Every POI had like 10-20 people living in it.

 

I'm still way too early in A17 to have too strong a take on it, but so far I'm not liking the shift away from the building and crafting aspects of the game.

[KingSlayerGM]

I'm level 40 by day 13, I'm not sure how that is really slowing the game down to a grind. Buy cardio and you can run nearly infinitely with no aid. Drink coffee for nearly unlimited stamina. Get educated before thinking its so bad.

 

But day 13 is at least 13 hours of play (probably). Gaining levels takes a lot of time, and having things locked behind time is bad.

[OzHawkeye]

HATS OFF TO YA PIMPS!

 

 

In my current game I'm using to explore A17, I've been stuck in the desert from Day 1, while working my way up the survival tree, and I just about 20 minutes ago, managed the final piece for my Minibike. I used it to venture forth and head out to the Trader to complete the initial quest who was 2.5km's away. Through the desert, some burnt forest, then finally a forest biome where the trader was, it was a great drive (and the cars I salvaged along the way have really helped out with some missing loot).

 

Damn if this game ain't gettin' awful purrdy!

 

Really this game has two eras now: pre-A17 and post-A17.

[RestInPieces]

-Dying was not a penalty - it was a "buff", with which you casually reseted your status. Which was unacceptable for a survival game.

 

I kinda like this quote Restinpieces.

 

I don't think the death penalties are viable for PVP though. PVE yes.

 

Was speaking for PvE exclusively, death penalty might indeed be too much for player kills.

 

 

As for gating - it is what enables progression, you shouldn't expect getting end-game items so soon into the game. Progression was too short, both tech-wise and level-wise. The game does have quite a bit of content but still felt too empty. Mid-game materials are still barely used.

 

But, as I've said before, essential recipe perks could be gated with POI exploration instead of leveling. This doesn't mean they should be more accessible, it just means that you can use another parallel gameloop to progress tech-wise.

[giltirn]

I'm level 40 by day 13, I'm not sure how that is really slowing the game down to a grind. Buy cardio and you can run nearly infinitely with no aid. Drink coffee for nearly unlimited stamina. Get educated before thinking its so bad.

 

Assuming level gains are roughly linear in time, your 40 levels in 13 hours suggests getting to level 100 will take almost 33 hours. That's way too long for me I'm afraid. This would have been fine for me 15-20 years ago but long gone are the days that I can spend 12 hours a night playing a video game. Heck, I've been playing 7D2D since A10 and have only 100 hours total.

 

Now I'm not the person that needs to have every perk in the game so I don't mind if it takes 33 hours to get them all. Leave that to the completionists. What bothers me is that swathes of content are locked away from me due to this artificial restriction - I will probably never get to use a gyrocopter.

 

I understand that you need to cater also to the young'uns but please at least give us game config options (that are more convenient than xml edits) to lessen the grind for those who don't have time to burn!

[Krougal]

this game isn't fun anymore. its been intentionally made slow, grindy, and limited. for the life of me i cannot figure out why.

 

This

 

There's plenty of excellent stuff in A17, but the grindy nature of the early game is getting on my nerves already and dampening the fun of discovery.

 

and this.

 

Although to be brutally honest it has been this way since xp/leveling/skills was added. Reminds me why I got burnt out on MMOs. Grind, grind, grind. So this isn't a big change from A16, although I suppose it's an improvement even if it's a game mechanic I am bored to death of.

 

The new POIs are amazing, although a bit overly generous with zombies. It really makes me want to explore again. Most of the changes are pretty good. Still a bit confused on how food/water/meds are working, but it beats the old wellness system. The combat changes are pretty good (other than headshots gimped sucks major ♥♥♥♥ing ass) and melee is still viable despite many claims to the contrary, it just requires more situational awareness. The mods, especially to guns are cool AF.

 

And yet still after a few hours the game was feeling like a chore again. I consoled XP to max level, maxed all perks, loaded up on the different guns & military armor with mods to see how the high end stuff was (not to mention the new vehicles), and flew around Navzgane a bit.

 

What's funny is even with maxed skills and gear, the way the game scales up it's like nothing changes, I don't know if the POIs got more zeds or not because of the silly gamestage I was at, but every house in Diersville had at least 5 per floor. The hospital was insane. I can't imagine what the towers are going to be like. Of course they were all high end zombie bullet sponges and if I wasn't cheating I'd have bought it repeatedly. Granted I was playing very sloppily, not like I would normally and had I "earned" my stuff.

 

Don't get me wrong though, all in all a lot of huge improvements in A17.

[gfoster610]

I've only gotten about 2 hours into getting started and here are the things that I've run into.

 

Teleporting seems to be hit or miss. I generated a random map and launched the game. Then, went into Editor and found a good starting spot. Launch the game again, teleport to the coords, and it's not the correct spot. I tried this 3 times and got 1 successful attempt. So, seems to be intermittent.

 

Started first game by giving myself a 5 blue stone shovel to start base. Started to dig, and digging doesn't give XP???? Made the bottom of my pit for my base and then went to craft some basic wood spikes to fill the pit. Come to find....

 

WOOD SPIKES ARE GONE???? WTF??? I checked creative and the only spikes now are wood log spikes and steel log spikes. This is a huge change to base design, and wonder why these got removed? What did they ever do to you?

 

So, after that tried to just find a good starting spot.

 

Came up to a house, used stone axe to open up a hole in the wall. Removing 2 wood blocks drained all my stamina. Zombies came out of the hole and with no stamina, can't really move and can't really attack. So I died.

 

Also, I guess I have to read the patch notes on stealth. I loved the undetected/detected icon when stealthed. Now, who knows how that's working. I see an indication bar, but ????

 

So, impressions so far. Stamina cost is way high on digging, breaking blocks, and just in general. Are the spikes level gated? If so, that's really stupid. Tons of zombies now and they all seem to GPS right to you when you're somewhat nearby.

 

Also, I would agree with others in that before you could start the game the way you wanted, and now it seems that you are forced to start a certain way. Personally, I would start with base building once I got the basic quests out of the way. Now, you really can't do that. Not with stamina the way it is. Also, with the loss of spikes, that changes the whole base build for me.

 

I should have more time in the coming days to really dig in, but so far I'm not a huge fan of the forced start.

 

Also, remove encumbrance, it has nothing to do in a game like this.

[wastelandstoic]

Gratz unfun pimps, you finally succeeded in proving to me that you are only making a game for the hardcore "punish me" fanboys. At least now a casual player that plays games to relax and have fun knows this isn’t the game for him. If and when I do play 7 days again it will be 16.4 modded. Peace out.

[JCrook1028]

WOOD SPIKES ARE GONE???? WTF??? I checked creative and the only spikes now are wood log spikes and steel log spikes. This is a huge change to base design, and wonder why these got removed? What did they ever do to you?

 

Um..........you have that backwards. Log spikes are gone, wood spikes remain. Metal spikes are now made with forged iron.

[RestInPieces]

Also, remove encumbrance, it has nothing to do in a game like this.

 

On the contrary, it fits perfectly in a game like this. But I think it could use improvements, because while it's a good sentiment that you can still carry stuff even when encumbered, there are many different items in the game and you sometimes loot things by mistake or loot a little bit more than you should, which makes you check your inventory or throw stuff to get rid of the debuff very often.

[Kattla]

My short opinions, the TLDR of things:

Level gating is BS , even more so with no way to respec.

Encumbrance is fine, I actually like that solution.

Zombie AI is very much improved. I like it. At least it is predictable, which makes it easier.

[dex314]

My thoughts on these thoughts.

 

 

 

-It seems that you were too used to that nonsensically large stamina pool and drinking abuse that made you forget that stamina even existed. Stamina felt great to me - it's regeneration a bit too generous.

-The food/water system seems like a good change, just wish that food and water were not so abundant, even with low loot levels. No adversity at all there.

-Dying was not a penalty - it was a "buff", with which you casually reseted your status. Which was unacceptable for a survival game.

-Backpack changes are great. At least, mindlessly taking everything from every container like a bot was not my definition of fun.

-Leveling is extremely easy.

-A new player would be destroyed by boredom if your suggestions are applied, as soon as he stops being a new player (like a few rl hours).

 

 

 

Apparently you were used to having wheels instead of feet. Very glad that ridiculous 360 degree sprinting went away.

 

A new player wouldn't be bored if those changes were implemented because they were the changes already in A16 and people loved it. And no, dying cost you 10 wellness and of course having to respawn. So no it wasn't a buff since like you said, no one struggled with food or water. Youre just being a contrarian. The person's arguments were valid.

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

Strafing is incredibly important in an FPS. Why they would nerf the player motion speed while strafing is completely beyond me. Go fight someone. You might as well be having a stand-still duel.

 

Yes exactly. I hate that I am a slug moving backwards now too. And I especially hate that when you reload, you can barely move at all. This would be fine if you could interrupt reload or switch weapons during a reload, but since you can't the slow movement speed while reloading is an absolute nightmare and a horrible design decision. Absolutely ****ing horrible.

[dex314]

get educated? day 13 is 13 hours. that is a looooong time to go with only rng iron tools.

 

perk points are limited, but we are being told to "just take the Qol perks to lessen the effects of these new systems we implemented to slow you down" but we also need those perk points to unlock game necessities. there isn't "choice" in this system, there are just limits.

 

i haven't been able to play this build for more than 30 minutes at a time. because its boring. hitting a block a couple times and then resting to regain stamina over and over and over and over again isn't fun. having your hunger directly effect your stamina forces you to constantly eat, which isn't fun. having to eat 20 ears of corn to get your hunger up from 20 to full isn't fun. a pack of dogs on day 3 giving me a penalty that nerfs me to level 1 for an hour isn't fun.

 

 

this game isn't fun anymore. its been intentionally made slow, grindy, and limited. for the life of me i cannot figure out why.

 

I remember when they first started level locking everything -- they said it was to slow down player progression to make the gameplay last longer before maxing out. What they don't seem to get is we know how to enjoy end game in a giant, beautiful sandbox world. What we don't want is mandatory restrictions that arbitrarily slow us down with ANNOYANCES rather than challenges.

 

I mean now you cant even make a forge without reaching a certain level of skill points that we need to use for QOL stats. Pimps, don't make my life miserable because in A17 all i want to do is get to end game rather than enjoying the leveling process.

[PoppaTot]

Really, my only issue is so minor but bothers heck out of me lol..... Why increase the meat harvested and increase the meat used to cook?!

 

Makes no sense to me, why 5:5 instead of leaving it at 1:1 lmao

 

I feel very fortunate that is my only gripe lol

[bwheatley]

Very disappointed

 

Stamina usage is too high, combined with no more stamina drinks = grindfest of epic proportions. I knew this would happen when MM asked for people to test how far they could run without going out of stam. I asked at the time if the stamina drinks would be left in to balance this out, no response and now I know why, more massive nerfs to slow you down

 

perk system is great, really like most of it but WHY..W H Y did you lock every ****** thing behind a level limit? oh yes, thats right, to force people to grind levels instead of picking what they want, god forbid someone might want to put their first 20 points into making themselves an awesome archer, for example, no NO N.O.! instead lets force you to level to 100 to be that awesome archer, level locking the perks destroys their fun

 

LCB change = read the thread, you messed up big time

 

Food and drinks changes? counter intuitive, not needed, not fun, more micro management to...yes! slow you down

 

Death debuff - really? dying is most often its own penalty with having to possibly run long distances to recover your gear

 

Better pathing = well done Fatal

 

satisfying melee combat = good

 

Did I mention going out of stam breaking a single normal box? - retarded

 

Backpack changes - I recall Roland telling everyone to stop panicking because at the end of day 1 you could, if you wanted to spend the points, be easily back up to 32 slots. Well no Roland, thats total BS, because, oh YEAH! LEVEL LIMITS!

 

New textures are good, some thought obviously went into some of the new POI's and they are fun

 

 

Made it to level 12 before the grind wore me down and then an amazing thing happened, me and my friend, with getting on for 20k hours between us, super pumped for A17, got bored and logged out.

 

Thats what you did to your game

 

 

ps. New players are going to get destroyed on even the normal setting

 

 

I disagree, this is probably my favorite update yet. Ok back to my lurker status.